LinkedIn Top Voices 2020: Equity in the Workplace

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LinkedIn News is debuting our 6th annual Top Voices list, a collection of hundreds of experts driving today’s professional conversation. As COVID-19 continues to upend our lives, these members are using their voice to help us parse today’s changing world of work, navigate our industries and find balance through it all.

To compile the list, we used a combination of qualitative and quantitative signals — including engagement (including reactions, comments and shares across each member’s content); posting cadence; and follower growth. You can learn more about the methodology at the bottom of this article and can check out all of this year’s Top Voices around the world here. 

Given the heightened discussion around systemic racism and the importance of diversity across corporate America, we dug into the data for the first time this year to find standout voices speaking out about equity in the workplace, tackling topics like systemic racism, LGBTQ+ issues, opportunities for disabled professionals and how women are closing the gap.

Here are this year’s 10 #LinkedInTopVoices on equity in the workplace:

What she talks about: Harts shares content on women in the workplace, with a specific focus on how we can advance women of color across corporate America. She posts regularly on the topic of allyship and how women of color can be allies for each other. She also hosts on LinkedIn a weekly live show — Secure The Seat Live — where she interviews guests on everything from how white women can be better allies at work and the future of diversity overall.

Follow Harts Here

What she talks about: Jenkins posts content about racism, diversity, inclusion, equity, belonging in the workplace. She likes to “challenge her audience to think about how to create real organizational change through accountability practices,” she tells LinkedIn. Netta also hosts her own live show on LinkedIn — Unfiltered with Netta — where she has frank conversations about racism in the workplace and supporting women of color.

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What she talks about: King shares content largely on women in the workplace. She shares her weekly fix for equality, research, articles she writes for Forbes and HBR, audiograms of her podcast and content from her book, “The Fix”. “To solve inequality we have to disrupt our denial,” she tells LinkedIn and a lot of her research explores how we can do just that.

Follow King Here

What she talks about: Turner writes on equity, inclusion and diversity from many angles, with a focus on how to support working parents. On top of her work in diversity and inclusion at Northwest Permanente, she is also the founder of Steele & Grace, a platform that encourages mom-friendly workplaces. Her articles and posts contain information on pay equity for mothers, flexible schedules and returnships for working mothers.  

Follow Turner Here

What he talks about: Braswell is the founder of Jopwell, a career advancement platform for Black, Latinx and Native American students and professionals. He shares his thoughts pertaining to diversity, equity and inclusion, specifically how companies can build cultures that enable employees to bring their authentic selves to work. He is also the host of the forthcoming podcast, Race at Work, where he discusses what leaders got right and wrong in work scenarios dealing with race.

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What she talks about: Roberts shares links to articles, webinars and podcasts that help leaders better understand how to maximize human potential in diverse workplaces and communities, through aligning strengths, values and differences. Earlier this year, she shared 21 days of freely available diversity, equaity and inclusion resources on LinkedIn. One of her most popular posts featured her research in Harvard Business Review on advancing Black leaders.

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What he talks about: Sears — who has worked to advance the rights of the LGBTQ+ community — shares content on how to advance the equality of this group in the workplace. He also doesn’t shy away from discussing diversity through the important lens of intersectionality: A recent post discussed how the LGBTQ+ community can support Black Americans during this critical time in our country.

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What he talks about: His posts gravitate to issues that exist around diversity and inclusion in corporate America with an eye to grounding his content in what the research is saying on the issues. An article he wrote on “corporate diversity” came out of the circumstances related to both the pandemic and the societal turbulence attributed to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

Follow Thomas Here

What she talks about: Saunders — a speech language pathologist — works with brands to ensure they are making meaningful connections with people with disabilities. She uses her platform to amplify first-person stories of people with disabilities. She also shares articles, website and information relating to disability inclusion and accessibility across industries to push this conversation forward every day. Saunders also established one of the first resource websites for students interested in the field of Speech Language Pathology.

Follow Saunders Here

What he talks about: Orta leads strategy for DiversityInc, a website aimed at educating professionals on the benefits of diversity. He posts on issues related to inclusion in the workplace, with a special focus on the experience of Latinx employees and business leaders. During Hispanic Heritage month, Orta posted a series of articles sharing inspiring stories from Latinx leaders in the business community. In a world filled with a lot of negative news, Orta’s goal is to share positive stories of progress with his followers whenever possible.

Follow Orta Here

You’ve read about the Top Voices in Equity in the Workplace this year. Now, check out the #LinkedInTopVoices in Data Science & AI, Finance, Education and more.

To compile the list, we use a combination of quantitative and qualitative signals. This includes engagement (including reactions, comments and shares across each member’s content); posting cadence; and follower growth. But engagement is just a start. Our next filter is qualitative. LinkedIn News editors refine and curate the list by looking at an eligible member’s body of work: Are the contributions insightful, conversational and timely? Do they seek to give and get help vs. being self-promotional? Finally, does this list reflect the world we work and live in today? 

All sharing activity measured took place over a 12-month period, from October 1, 2019 through September 30, 2020. As with all LinkedIn Lists, we excluded current LinkedIn and Microsoft employees from consideration, as well as any members who are being or have been paid by LinkedIn to participate in brand campaigns or courses.